Apparently the 1000 islands area in Indonesia an hour or two north of Jakarta by boat used to be in the top ten healthiest coral reefs in the world, well that certainly aint the case anymore....

Originally Posted by UNESCO report

In response to the problem in 1995, UNESCO, with scientists from P30-LIPI and ITI, conducted a review of what has been happening to the Bay's coral reefs. The review repeated a similar survey which had been conducted 10 years earlier, allowing scientists from the three organisations to see how much the islands and reefs had been transformed during that period of rapid economic and industrial growth in Jakarta.

The results of the second survey indicated that the condition of the coral reefs in Pulau Seribu is continuing to decline, to the point that some islands have totally disappeared (see Fig. 1). Part of the problem of coral reef degradation is beyond our direct control, in that global warming and the El Nino effect have led to changed rainfall and runoff patterns and longer "dry-seasons" in Indonesia.

Another part of the problem, however, is not beyond our control. Many of the causes of erosion and reef degradation are related directly to human behaviour. These are the so-called ‘anthropogenic perturbations’ that affect the structure and health of the coral reef ‘community’. They include archaic waste disposal systems and unsustainable resource management practices which lead to:

decreasing water quality through industrial pollution and nutrient enrichment.

The worsening condition of coral reefs thus goes hand in hand with the unsustainable utilisation of resources by local fishermen and and specimen collectors, and by the developers of private resorts, as well as the improper or inadequate disposal of waste by industry and local government authorities.

Anyway, it was heartening to see some groups of locals are trying to rectify the situation by rehabilitating the reefs and transplanting corals.

*keeping my rose glasses on, cos they did say that they only sell 20% of the coral that they grow and place the other 80% back into the sea, and the wouldnt lie to me, would they?*

So you start with some broken coral to use as a substrate base to glue the small corals onto...

Then you take some coral that you have been growing elsewhere and chop it into small (2 inch) pieces... notice the yellow garden shears in his hand top right.

Some quick drying cement, and decorate your dead rock....

course this being Indo one also includes a plastic name tag for each coral......

soon it will look like this...

or this

lots of other small corals that they were growing... they normally grow them in the ocean. but dragged them out to make a display for us...

Ah well, I hope it does some good, but the cynic in me thinks that perhaps a whole lot more commercial transactions occur than they admit to, and possibly exaggerate how much rehabilitation that they do....

and the World Bank did recognize that the locals gotta make money if they are going to protect the environment....

its nice to see that they still find Sea turtle nests on some of the islands. the turtles have already hatched from this one.

we released a few more of the slightly older population, the turtle centre here, does not really keep any decent records of survival rates, body size, egg size vs survival... hmmm, could be a thesis here for someone with more time than me...

Freedom! I didnt see the plastic cup until after I took the pic, but quite poetic really....

and what made this trip particularly special was this pod of dolphins (includign a juvenile one) just snuck up on us when we were out surveying one of the coral reefs, they swam within 10 metres of us, leaping and playing and then swam away,
of course by the time I got to my camera and started to take some pics, they were quite a distance away.... hence the quality is pretty dicey, but it was good at the time.

It rained heavily in jakarta one day, the next day the entire ocean was filled with rubbish (mostly plastics and stuff) - the people living on the island told me it was jakarta rubbish not local rubbish....

I must admit I was not convinced at first, but mainland waste plants in the rubbish helped convince me...

surely they must realize what a beautiful part of the world they are doing in?

1. if you earn $2 a day you dont really give a stuff about some pretty corals.

2. most of that rubbish comes from Jakarta. most jakartans wouldnt bother visiting the 1000 islands, they are either workign 7 day weeks for their $100 a month or they are visiting bali/maldives for their holidays...

Apparently they sell 10-20% of stock (new stock?) each year and return the rest.....

That would make a nice argument in favor of owners of marine aquariums. We are often blamed for plundering natural resources. Now one can claim we support the rehabilitation of destroyed reefs.

I once took a small leather coral out of the Philppines I collected at a nice beach and brought it back alive into my aquarium, where it lived many years.
Had to smuggle it out of the Philippines because it is prohibited to take any marine life, even dried starfish, out of the country. But they sell dried Starfish and even Banjos made of Turtleshells at the souvenir shops in the airport.

I announced the coral to customs in Germany, telling truthfully that the international ban applies to stone corals, but not to leather corals. He looked at me suspiciously but then said, ok I believe you.

[Quote:= Originally Posted by Takeovers ]
But they sell dried Starfish and even Banjos made of Turtleshells at the souvenir shops in the airport.

Those laws should be a little more selective. Nothing wrong with dried starfish, except that I don't want one. The leather coral I took out was endemic. Many thousands of them at this small beach and they are not on any cites list.

And if there is such a law, there shouldn't be souvenir shops at the airport selling the stuff openly.